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Mid-Week Missive |
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| Author: | Brad Miller | Created: | 10/30/2007 2:52 AM |  | | What is happening at BCC? |
| True Community | |
| By Brad Miller on4/21/2009 9:59 AM | |
| Greetings,
Normally, I would send this out tomorrow, but I just got off the phone with a man I have never met before, and probably never will. Yet, this man and his wife have touched me so profoundly this morning that I needed to share it with you. The whole scenario speaks to the mysterious power of God’s presence, the strength that we gather as members of a faith community and the absolute unknowable boundaries of that community.
As I mentioned on Sunday, Andrea Chambers, a member of BCC who moved to Texas about a year and a half ago, called me this past weekend. Things have been going well. She is engaged to a soldier named Mike, who is presently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. She was 7 months pregnant when she went to the doctors for a test to let her know the gender of the baby. She was told there was no heart beat; the baby had died. For medical reasons, she needed to carry the baby another week and her delivery by c-section is scheduled for ... |  | |
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| | After Easter | |
| By Brad Miller on4/15/2009 3:25 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful spring day!
Easter is such a wonderful time, but it can also be one of great stress, too. Not only for the preacher who wants to find a new way to tell a story that everyone already knows, or the choir director who wants to have the best possible anthem on that special day, or the person who gives the children’s sermon who wants to wow the kids on the biggest day of the church calendar. No, it can be stressful to the person who after witnessing all the passion and joy of the resurrection, gets up on Monday morning and realizes that their life has not changed a bit. If Easter happened, why am I not in a better place,or in a better mood, or why haven’t I solved my problems? Year after year, Easter comes and goes and we celebrate. But what of the person who witnesses the perfect love of God revealed in Christ Jesus, and still finds themselves mired in a decidedly un-perfect world?
Well, it may just be that that is why the worshipping ... | | |
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| | Generosity | |
| By Brad Miller on4/8/2009 3:03 PM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful spring day,
One of the things I have done each Holy Week for the last several years is read parts of the Gospel accounts of the events of the first Holy Week some 2000 years ago. I do it to put myself back in touch with the story, to remind myself that even faithful people are capable of horrible things and to guard myself against being one of those people. I do it to try and experience the reality of the situation: that Jesus, fully human, faced humiliation and death, for me, for us, for humanity. And when those things are accomplished, something else becomes apparent: we serve a generous God.
The events of Holy Week are horrible, but Jesus, God incarnate on earth, generously gave of himself that we might have a relationship and know the joy of salvation. Because of that generosity, we are a forgiven people, secure in the fact that nothing can ever really harm us, for God is with us. Because of that generosity, we have been given e ... | | |
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| | Making Lists | |
| By Brad Miller on4/8/2009 3:01 PM | |
| Greetings!
The last few weeks my life has been dominated by lists. Lists of what needed to be done in preparation for the closing on the house we were buying. Lists of what needed to be done at the apartment we were moving from and what needed to be done at the new house. Lists of utilities to be turned off and then turned on. Lists of things to buy. Lists of things to donate to the church yard sale. But the good news is that last Friday we closed, Monday the movers came, and Carol and I are seeing lots of progress on our lists and the “to do” portions get shorter and shorter. We are in the house, getting more and more things in place, checking off more and more items on our list, and going about the wonderful business of setting up a new home. We have appreciated everyone’s prayers and support as we moved through this whole process.
Since I have gotten so accustomed to lists, I thought I would include you in on the fun and make today’s missive a list of u ... | | |
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| | Hard Work: Big Results | |
| By Brad Miller on3/25/2009 2:31 PM | |
| Greetings on the waiting to rain day….
How is your Lenten journey going? Have you had any “aha” moments? Have you been able to incorporate more of the spiritual disciplines of prayer and meditation into your daily life? Are you ready for it to be over?
Well, it will be in the not too distant future, but don’t wish this time away. A few weeks ago in worship I said “I love Lent.” I was surprised at the reactions I got: some who thought I was crazy (but, hey that could be for any number of reasons!), some who talked to me earnestly about their difficulties with Lent, but who were committed to doing their best to do the hard work in front of them. I heard from people who said that they never really thought of Lent as being much different from any other time of the year, and finally I even heard from a couple of you who understood what I meant and agreed with me!
But for those who didn’t understand what I meant, let me try and elaborate. ... | | |
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| | "The Church Together" | |
| By Brad Miller on3/17/2009 10:00 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful day,
Last week I had lunch with someone who has been visiting the church for a while. He sat in on the board meeting after worship on February 28th to learn about possible building renovations and debt reduction and when I asked what he though he replied, “You know, in the past when I heard the word ‘church’ I would think of the building. Since coming to Brookhaven, I now know that the real ‘church’ is the people that make it up.”
Of course, he was right, it was just sort of odd that it came up when were talking about a meeting that specifically addressed some concerns for our physical plant! And he wasn’t trying to say that the building wasn’t important or didn’t matter. I think he was saying that the board meeting personified what it meant to be the church: thoughtful people, all working in the best interest of the ministry of Jesus Christ, all striving to find the best answers to questions, no matter if the topic was spiritual o ... | | |
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| | Heavenly Vision | |
| By Brad Miller on3/11/2009 10:15 AM | |
| Greetings on this beautiful pre-spring day!
One of the daily devotionals that I use is a classic written by Oswald Chambers called “My Utmost for His Highest.” Chambers wrote the original edition of this devotional in 1935 and over the years it has been updated to reflect changes in language, but through it all, editors have tried very hard to keep Chambers original intentions and thoughts intact. They have done a great job and it is volume that I would heartily recommend.
This morning the very first paragraph of the devotion hit me square between the eyes: “If we lose the ‘heavenly vision’ God has given us, we alone are responsible – not God. We lose the vision because of our own lack of spiritual growth. If we do not apply our beliefs about God to the issues of everyday life, the vision God has given us will never be fulfilled. The only way to be obedient to “the heavenly vision” is to give our utmost for His highest – our best for His glory…the acid test ... | | |
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| | True Lenten Fasting | |
| By Brad Miller on2/25/2009 12:50 PM | |
| Greetings on this wonderful Ash Wednesday morning,
Yes, it is hard to believe but Ash Wednesday is here and that means that we are now at the start of our Lenten journey for 2009. It is a journey we take every year, and our sincere hope is that each time we focus on our Lenten disciplines of introspection, prayer and study, we come closer and closer to being who God would have us be while strengthening our relationship with Jesus Christ. It says something about our humanness that we NEED to do this over and over again, year after year, Lent after Lent. It also says something about our grace filled God that we GET to do this over and over again, year after year, Lent after Lent.
Several years ago I came across an anonymous piece called “True Lenten Fasting” which I have used as a guide ever since. I have shared it with you before, but I would like to do so again so that you might put it on your refrigerator, or inside your Bible, or somewhere where you’ll see ... | | |
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| Peanut Butter Crisis | |
| By Brad Miller on2/24/2009 3:58 PM | |
| Greetings on this chilly morning,
As if the news about the economy, job layoffs, plant shut downs, industry collapses and the like wasn’t enough. Now they are saying I have to get rid of my peanut butter! Will it never end, this cycle of bad news? Will we ever be able to eat that Snickers bar or dig into a fresh jar of Jif without wondering about our safety? Will I have to check packaging to see if anything I buy was made on machines that also processed peanuts? What will become of Mr. Peanut? Will he become destitute, with a soiled top hat and a broken cane, his monocle scotch taped together, living out his days with people staring and whispering, “What a shame. He used to be somebody, I just can’t remember who.”
Well, I for one am not going to take it. We can argue about how much CEO’s make, and whether or not socialized medicine is the way to go. We can talk about the billions that are needed to shore up our economy, our housing market. We can debate ... | | |
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| | Hospitality | |
| By Brad Miller on2/24/2009 3:50 PM | |
| Greetings on this drizzly morning,
It’s kind of funny how God works to put things in front of you that help you connect up the dots, move you forward, keep you on track. Let me explain.
This past weekend, Carol and I attended a conference/retreat for couples who are involved in Marriage Enrichment events. We went through training about 10 years ago, were certified to lead retreats and workshops, and have tried each year since to attend one of these conference/retreats. It has always proven to be a relaxing time, and we always come away with new insights about our own marriage, as well as for leading retreats. Over the years the conferences that we have attended have been held at Calloway Gardens, Birmingham and various places in and around Gulf Shores, Alabama. This years conference was held at the WinShape Retreat Center at Berry College. And something about this conference was very, very different.
The facilities are beautiful, but t ... | | |
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